Tangeni Amupadhi
Next time Spiwe Takura stands in front of police officers for her training session, she will have the perfect example of victimisation to present. A human rights trainer for the police in Gauteng, Takura claims her own human rights were shockingly abused in Yeoville.
Her ordeal started at a supermarket last month when she went to buy groceries on her way home from one of her human rights workshops. She tried to pay the R58 bill by cheque, but the store took too long clear it.
She explained to the cashier how tired she was and said if they would not accept the cheque, she would leave. The store manager, Chris van Deventer, allegedly ordered three “bouncers” to stop her from leaving.
Takura was led to the manager’s tiny office, where she was guarded by four men while two women tried telephonically to verify the ownership of the cheque.
When Takura demanded to know why she was being held, Van Deventer allegedly told her she had used a stolen cheque and he called the police.
When two policemen arrived, she breathed a sigh of relief. But they demanded to see her ID book, which she produced in addition to her cheque book, credit card and a previous cheque book – all consistent with her identification. “But they were not in a listening mood,” she says.
One policeman asked what nationality she is. Zimbabwean. Then he took down her personal particulars. She asked to use the phone, but this was refused.
One of the policemen told his colleague to take Takura out. He took her out to the roof-top parking area.
“I asked where he was taking me, and he just kicked and punched me. It was very swift. He told me, `You are not my wife and I’m not your husband, and you must shut up,'” she claims.
She was taken to the Yeoville police station, where she was told to sit on the floor. She refused. She was then told to get someone to collect her car because she was being taken to the Hillbrow police station.
At the Hillbrow police station she was locked up in a cell with four other women and a six-year-old. In a corner of the cell were a few blood-stained sanitary towels which the police refused to remove.
When her lawyer arrived, the investigating officer was nowhere to be found, so she could not apply for bail.
“I kept saying to myself, `This is a nightmare, it will soon go away.'” After realising she would be spending a night in police custody, Takura told a police officer she needed medical attention for chest pains and a headache.
The police captain asked two policemen to take her to a doctor – they took her for a “joyride”, she says, and were soon back at the police station. She asked the captain why she was not taken to a doctor, but the police officers produced tablets which they said came from the clinic.
The next morning she was handcuffed and taken to the fraud unit. “I told a Sergeant van Heerden to please just listen to me for two minutes.” Van Heerden listened, then called Takura’s bank and confirmed the veracity of her story.
“Five minutes later she told me I could go. There was no case. I expected, at least, an apology. There was victimisation at every level,” she emphasises.
Takura has laid charges of assault and has reported the matter to the Department of Safety and Security.
Van Deventer refuses to talk about the incident. Yeoville police say the case is being investigated.
“As a police trainer, this incident made me realise the need to train police how to treat clients. All they should have done is listen, and realise there was no case,” Takura says.
“Initially I was disappointed and angry, because I empathise with them because they work under a lot of pressure. Now I feel empowered. I think I’m in the best position to train police officials after this incident.”
The Independent Complaints Directorate, which monitors and investigates complaints against the police, says between April last year and March this year the deaths of more than 500 people due to police action were recorded, with a further 219 deaths in custody. The directorate has recorded 68 cases of torture, 157 cases of assault with serious bodily harm and 48 incidents of abuse of power.